New York Pre-K Program On Chopping Block

Advocates for early-childhood education across New York state are
mobilizing to fight a budget proposal by Gov. George E. Pataki that
would wipe out all state funding for universal prekindergarten
programs.

Part of the Republican governor's proposed $1.2 billion cut to
education, the plan has provoked condemnation from teachers and some
lawmakers, who say the move would undermine a program that has many
benefits.

Karen Schimke, the co-director of the Center for Early Care and
Education, an Albany-based group that has coordinated a statewide
campaign called Winning Beginning New York to rally support for the
program, said the cuts would leave some 60,000 children without pre-K
programs and 6,000 teachers and teacher aides without jobs.

The burden of those cuts, she said, would fall especially hard on
low-income families.

Ms. Schimke has testified before state lawmakers that Gov. Pataki's
proposed education budget is an "assault" on the state education
system. "This isn't the first time we have had concerns that universal
pre-K wouldn't continue," she said in an interview. "There are parents
all over New York who are counting on this program."

Ms. Schimke said the Winning Beginning New York campaign has sent
40,000 signatures to the governor from parents, teachers, and others
who want to save the program, and 60,000 more are on the way.

In 1997, Gov. Pataki supported universal-prekindergarten legislation
pushed by Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver, a Democrat. But as
New York's economy went into a tailspin after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorists attacks, state money for the program, which was supposed to
increase to $500 million by this year, was frozen at $200 million
during 2001 and 2002.

Across New York, a state with more than 700 school districts, 190
districts have state-financed pre-K initiatives.

Fighting to Survive

In addition to eliminating the prekindergarten program, Gov.
Pataki's proposal would cut a program to reduce class sizes in the
early grades, end efforts to expand full-day kindergarten, and reduce
by $7 million an experimental pre-K program now funded at $50
million.

For Linda Coleman-Nichols, the director of magnet schools and
early-childhood programs in the 9,000-student Utica school district,
the possibility of those cuts leaves her contemplating a bleak
future.

Utica has 360 4-year olds in pre-K programs, housed mainly in six
community agencies.

"This would devastate our program," Ms. Coleman-Nichols said. "We
have had the program for five years, and we have transitioned from day
care to really having an early-learning program.

If the cuts pass, Ms. Coleman-Nichols vows that she will try to save
as much of the pre-K initiative as she can.

"I just can't sit by and lose these programs that are so badly
needed by children and families," she said. "We'll try to keep
something afloat, but at this point I don't have a dime. I'm begging
and bargaining."

'Fiscal Crisis'

Gov. Pataki justified his proposed education cuts to New York
reporters last month.

"We have made record investments in public education in general, and
in pre-K specifically. No other administration has ever come close to
the record investments we have made," he was quoted as saying.

"Now we are going to have to pause and deal with the fiscal crisis
of this state without hurting the economic prospects of this state,"
Mr. Pataki said. "The most important thing is to make sure we create
jobs, create opportunities, expand the economy, because that's what
created the resources that allowed us to make these record investments
in schools and in health care and in pre-K."

New York, with a state budget of $90 billion, currently projects a
$11.5 billion shortfall over the next two years.

At least one other state is also considering eliminating state
funding for its programs for 4-year-olds. In Wisconsin, a legislative
task force report recommends ending that state's support for a
kindergarten program for 4-year-olds because of budget concerns.

New York Assemblyman Steven Sanders, the Democrat who chairs the
education committee in the legislature's lower house, said he was
disappointed but not surprised by Gov. Pataki's proposal.

"The governor, even in flush years, has sought to cut back and
renege on his commitment to pre-K education," he contended.

Mr. Sanders added that of the proposed budget cuts for education,
the pre-K plan was drawing the most reaction from lawmakers because of
the near-unanimous agreement that the program is an important
investment.

"The first money that must be restored is prekindergarten," Mr.
Sanders said. "There will not be a budget agreement without the
restoration of pre-K. ... Politically and substantively, it's not a
good thing to be going after 4-year-olds."

Vol. 22, Issue 30, Pages 22, 26

Published in Print: April 9, 2003, as New York Pre-K Program On Chopping Block

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